The Beast Within: Making Alien (2003)

Sorry, this movie sucks

An Exercise In Nonsense

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

So many great interviews by the actors. So many great clips of scenes. So much behind the scenes the make the movies even better.Again Ridley Scott did a great job of directing. Sigourney Weaver did a great job in her first role. The special effects were excellent as was the action. The fear seemed real. A movie that still looks good after all these years.

If you want to know not just about "Alien" but also about Hollywood at the time or about what screenwriters deal with or about the special effects technology of the time or about how actors are chosen for a film or about audiences (at least back then)... You get the idea. If I were to teach a course on the history of film or about the film industry there's a good chance I'd want all my students to see this. There may be better ones but I can't think of any off hand. Of course it helps if you enjoyed "Alien," but if you don't at least respect it as a landmark film then you might be one of the few people who wouldn't like it. If you enjoy jumping over couches or texting while a film is playing then you also may not get much out of this.

This most comprehensive documentary takes you from the very seed of conceptional idea to the finished product of the Director's Cut DVD Alien Quadrilogy Collector's Set. It is longer in duration than the film itself, and documents every detail of pre-production, production, filming, post-production, marketing, and design. I found it interesting that Alien was conceived and molded into the movie it is, with Total Recall springing from it, as well as several other movies which would come onto the scene a few years later. I had never realized the relationship between Alien and Total Recall, before this documentary.I highly recommend this, which I found as "Disk 2" of the Alien Quadrilogy 9-disk Collector's Set, to any fan of the series. It is highly informative and extremely entertaining, complete with original pages of the script, some great conceptual shots, and the total Alien design.It rates a 10/10 on the Documentary Scale from...the Fiend :.

This massive documentary is very good, almost exhausive, ranking in at 178 minutes, longer than the film ALIEN (1979) itself. It's well-made and overwhelmingly informative at times.It features many interviews detailing the concept to the production of the film. For ALIEN fans this is a must-see but anyone interested in the history of the film for whatever reason should see it, too.Overall I've seen better but this is still a great documentary for a classic motion picture.4.5/5R.I.P. Jerry Goldsmith